


I’ve Got You

by humanities_angstiest



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2016-03-14
Packaged: 2018-05-26 15:02:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6244390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/humanities_angstiest/pseuds/humanities_angstiest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Those three words were all Eren needed to hear to feel safe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I’ve Got You

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve read a few Erejean fics where Jean says “I’ve got you” or something else reassuring to Eren and it was what made me believe in this ship. So this is my own contribution.

Eren wasn’t sure what would kill him first, a titan in the vicinity or his free-fall backwards out of his own titan’s body. Could a fifteen meter plummet to the solid earth below kill him? Or would he simply break every bone in his body and lay in pain until he regenerated?

Thankfully, he would not learn the answer, at least not today.

Jean Kirschtein had successfully sliced through the nape of a 10 meter class when he noticed Eren’s titan had stopped roaring. Jaeger was so fucking loud, that even though there were many other yells and screams echoing in the forest, the world seemed to go quiet when Jaeger did. Jean turned in time to see Eren’s body topple out of his titan’s nape.

Jean knew fighting as a titan exhausted Eren. Recently, all his practicing with Hange had started to pay off, improving the titan shifter’s ability to stay awake after exiting his titan. Yet despite the likelihood that Eren was conscious, Eren wasn’t using his 3DMG to stop his descent.

“Suicidal bastard,” Jean muttered to himself as he sunk his grappling hooks into a tree and flew across the battlefield to wrap Eren’s limp body under his arm.

Eren’s eyes had been closed as he fell, accepting the pain that would surely come in a few moments. He didn’t anticipate that someone would see him fall and save him. He certainly didn’t anticipate that his savior would be horse-face.

Eren felt ridiculous, being held around the waist by Kirschtein. He would have struggled, but knew he didn’t have the energy to use his own 3DMG if his efforts to reposition himself caused Jean to drop him.

Eren had never been afraid of heights before. At least not when he could use his 3DMG gas canisters to propel him through the air and his grappling hooks to save him if the canisters ran out. Now that he was faced downwards, he could see how far he would have fallen down down down to the ground if Jean hadn’t caught him. It was easy to reassure himself that he would regenerate when he was facing the sky as he fell, but seeing the ground so far beneath him made him seriously doubt whether his regenerative powers could unflatten a pancake.

Eren never thought twice before biting his hand so hard it bled, or losing a limb as he was cut out of his titan. It wasn’t that he was impervious to pain, but he saw a purpose behind it and he could accept it. He had put himself through those types of pain so often that he was no longer afraid.

He had never felt the pain of his entire body colliding with hard-packed dirt and small rocks.

Thinking of the pain he so narrowly avoided made him shiver.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you.”

Eren craned his neck so he could scrutinize Jean Kirschtein, who appeared calm among the cries of soldiers and crashing of titans. The reddish-yellow light of the sun sinking below the trees caught in Jean’s hair, glanced off his sharp cheekbones, and lit up his amber eyes, which determinedly faced forward as he zipped them across the battlefield. There was something about Jean’s words that calmed Eren.

Jean landed on a thick tree branch and set Eren on his feet, keeping an arm wrapped around his waist so the exhausted boy wouldn’t fall. Jean gave a cursory glance to Eren, who appeared paler than usual and was swaying lightly on his feet. He definitely didn’t look capable of using his 3DMG.

Jean’s gaze shifted downward, watching as the last titan in the area fell beneath Corporal Levi’s blades. With the area cleared of all threats, Jean gripped Eren tighter around the waist before slowly zipping them down to the ground where the remaining soldiers were gathering in the aftermath of the battle.

As soon as their feet touched soil, Eren slumped in Jean’s arms. Jean laid Eren’s body down since the boy was too tired to stand any longer, and waited by his side as a red scarf whipping in the evening breeze drew closer and closer until Mikasa kneeled at Eren’s side, checking him for any fatal injuries.

Eren patiently allowed Mikasa to scan him for wounds, too exhausted to put up a fight. She nodded her head when she decided he wasn’t in mortal peril.

Certain that Mikasa would get Eren to a medical cart, Jean stood to find his horse and make his way back to headquarters.

“Wait,” Eren called to Jean’s retreating back. He tried sitting up but slumped into Mikasa’s waiting arms, too weak to lift his upper body.

Jean glanced over his shoulder at Eren, brows raised in question. Eren did not know the answer.

Eren had been saved before. Saved by soldiers following orders. Jean had those same orders. Protect Eren Jaeger. Eren Jaeger was too valuable to lose. Jean was just following orders by saving Eren from that fall.

Except no one had reassured him before, saying “Don’t worry, I’ve got you.” All the other times, he was saved because he was valuable. The way Jean spoke to him, it made Eren feel like he was saved because he was a person, a comrade.

As Jean walked away from him, Eren was reminded of the truth. He and Jean were not friends. Jean saved him because he had to. This wasn’t a surprise to Eren. They were nothing but rivals, after all. What did surprise him was how strongly he wished for their relationship to be different.

*

A week passed since that expedition outside the walls and things in the Survey Corps had returned to normal. Well, most things.

Hange had checked Eren’s condition as soon as they returned to headquarters and gave him a clean bill of health. Despite this, everyone who knew Eren, and that was everyone because he was a freaking titan shifter, could tell that something was off about the boy.

The incident during the expedition made Eren realize he didn’t hate Jean as he once believed. His feelings were more complicated than unadulterated loathing. Jean continued to say irritating shit that got under Eren’s skin, but Eren did nothing about it. He wanted to be friends with Jean and that wasn’t likely to happen if he broke the guy’s nose in a fistfight.

Now that Eren wasn’t arguing with Jean, they never spoke. Eren sat with Armin and Mikasa and Jean hung out with Marco, Connie, and Sasha. They kept to themselves and meals were calm affairs, free from fistfights. This didn’t help Eren feel better. If anything, the loss of contact between him and Jean made him feel worse.

Mikasa cornered him after dinner and did her best to no avail of identifying the culprit behind her brother’s unusual behavior. Armin sat in the corner smirking at his book, having realized the cause of his best friend’s mood change long ago.

During training, Eren was distracted. Distracted by that ridiculous two-toned haircut, those long and lean limbs, that laugh which used to sound like braying but now made Eren think of rushing water flowing over rocks in a riverbed; a strong, calming sound.

Jean and Marco were practicing hand to hand combat and Jean had stopped to teach Marco a new move. He held Marco’s hand gently and directed it onto his bicep, holding it there for far too long. That was when Eren lost it.

He knew Marco and Jean were best friends, but seeing how easily Marco could touch Jean made his mind fuzzy with rage.

Eren stomped over to where the two friends were practicing and ripped Marco’s hand off of Jean’s arm. The two boys stared at the newcomer in surprise and Eren realized what he had done. Deciding to just roll with it, he punched Jean in the jaw.

He wasn’t satisfied to see Jean stumble back in shock, but he felt much better when Jean put his hands on him and shoved hard.

“What the fuck, asshole?”

Why couldn’t Jean look at him the way he did at Marco? Why did Eren only receive looks of annoyance while everyone else experienced Jean’s charming smile? Fuck, why did Eren want Jean to smile charmingly at him?

Eren swung wildly, not even caring what his limbs were fighting, since he was too preoccupied fighting his mind about what his feelings for Jean were. To no one’s surprise, Jean took advantage of Eren’s uncoordinated movements and punched him hard, knocking the shorter boy backwards where he tripped and cracked his head against the stone well nearby.

“Fuck!” Eren heard Jean whisper-shout as the two-toned boy ran towards him. Worried amber eyes were the last thing Eren saw before his own eyes closed to embrace the encroaching darkness.

*

“Ugh,” Eren groaned, raising a hand to lightly touch his aching head. He hissed at the sharp pain and when he drew his hand back down, he saw red on his fingertips.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you,” a voice above him reassured.

Eren didn’t notice before, but his surroundings were moving although he was certain his legs weren’t. He turned in the direction of the voice and realized that Jean Kirschtein was carrying him in his arms, bridal style.

Eren’s face flushed and he quickly looked away from Jean, who was staring at him intently.

“You can put me down,” Eren whispered, although that was the last thing he wanted, pride be damned.

“You hit your head pretty hard. I’m carrying you to the nurse’s office.”

Eren pretended to sulk in Jean’s arms, but he leaned closer to Jean’s chest. He would deny breathing in Jean’s fresh scent, like damp earth and sunshine and a little bit of hay, which suited him and not because Eren often joked that he resembled a horse. Perhaps that was true when they were twelve year old trainees, but puberty helped Jean grow into his long face and there was nothing unattractive about his face now.

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

Eren quickly turned his head away to hide his rising blush, but Jean could still spot the pinkish tint filling his cheeks.

They arrived at the nurse’s station. When she asked what happened, all Jean supplied was “training accident.” The nurse cleaned the cut on the back of Eren’s head but decided not to bandage it since steam was already rising, a sign that the damage was being repaired.

The nurse told Eren to stay in bed and rest. The soldiers were coming back for dinner shortly, so there was no point in returning to the training field now. Jean said he would monitor Eren’s condition, so the nurse excused herself to get her own dinner.

“You don’t have to stay with me,” Eren said for perhaps the fourth time. It wasn’t that he wanted Jean to leave, but having him around made Eren feel strange and nervous, and he couldn’t rest when he was hyper-aware of Jean breathing softly by his bedside.

“Stop saying that. It’s not like I want to stay with a suicidal bastard like you anyway, but I feel kinda guilty that you’re injured because of me. Although really it’s your own fault, asshole. Why the fuck did you just attack me? I thought we had a truce or something, since you didn’t fight with me all week. What the fuck was that all about?”

Jean looked guilt-ridden at first which quickly morphed to anger and confusion when he recalled the cause of this mess. Eren fucking Jaeger decided to pick a fight with him for no reason when he wasn’t even his sparring partner. It was the shithead’s own fault that he got injured. Jean was only defending himself.

Eren looked panicked, which made no sense to Jean.

“I realized I fucking hate you Kirschtein, that’s why,” Eren grumbled. The words weren’t as corrosive as the teal-eyed boy wanted them to sound, mostly because he was lying through his teeth.

Jean was baffled by the response, but then he saw Eren’s red ears, a telltale sign that he was lying, and Jean smirked. “That’s too bad, because I don’t hate you.”

Eren had been staring at the wall behind Jean, unable to look at him while he lied, but his gaze snapped to the other’s face immediately at Jean’s admission.

“Don’t fuck with me Kirschtein. We’ve always hated each other.”

“We’ve always disagreed with each other. I’ve never hated you. Do you really hate me?”

Eren didn’t know what game Kirschtein was playing. He feared being honest, as Kirschtein seemed to be in this moment, just for that jerk to turn around and say he was messing with Eren.

On the other hand, Kirschtein could be completely fucking serious and one wrong word from Eren could ruin whatever moment they were having. Eren took advice he once received from Captain Levi, who told him to make the choice he’d regret the least.

“I don’t hate you.” Eren tried to sound normal, perhaps a bit insouciant. Instead, his voice wavered with all the words he wasn’t saying, all the words that were the farthest thing from hate.

Jean stared at Eren for what felt like a long time but couldn’t have been more than half a minute. Slowly, as if he was approaching a wild animal, Jean climbed onto Eren’s bed, putting his legs on either side of Eren’s which were straightened out.

Eren’s eyes were comically wide in fear of the unknown. Jean found it cute. It was a rare expression on the angry boy and Jean felt honored to elicit it.

“Is this okay?” Jean whispered as his face drew nearer and nearer to Eren’s.

Jean watched Eren’s adams apple bob and his messy brown hair shake slightly as he nodded his head ‘yes’.

Eren’s eyes were clenched tight, bracing himself. That wasn’t what Jean wanted. He had missed Eren’s vibrant eyes staring fiercely into his own during this week of calm. The change in Jaeger’s behavior was so sudden and strange that Jean had asked Armin if the fiery boy was okay.

Honestly, he had been worried about Eren ever since he saw him free falling out of his titan. He had remained calm for Eren’s sake, but inside he was shaken. His heart skipped a beat when he thought of what might have happened if he hadn’t seen Eren falling.

Jean cupped Eren’s face gently between his palms as he slowly leaned in, closing the distance inch by inch between his and Eren’s lips.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading this! Comments and kudos are highly appreciated :)


End file.
